Gaming coverage from a judgmental dude

XBLA Games Won't Transfer To Xbox One

Tough luck for Xbox gamers who have an extensive Xbox Live arcade library and wanted to bring it with them to Xbox One, as GameSpot is reporting that Microsoft has just announced that the XBLA games will not carry over to the new console.

“Those games will continue to run on your Xbox 360 for as long as your Xbox 360 runs,” Microsoft Game Studios VPPhil Spencer told GameSpot. “The box is not backward compatible and we think for somebody who invests in a large digital library that you want to keep your [Xbox 360]. Keep that as a vibrant part of the ecosystem.”

It was also recently confirmed that Xbox One will not be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games. The system runs on a completely different type of hardware, so to be able to make it backwards compatible would make the system more expensive, as well as take longer for the thing to come out. Plus, Xbox business head Don Mattrick recently made a statement saying that only 5% of gamers play older games on a newer system, so you best believe that they’re not going to go out of their way to reach out to a small number of gamers. Those snobs!

So it sounds like, for the most part, Xbox One is completely leaving Xbox 360 behind, with only things from Xbox Live like gamerscore and friends lists transferring over. If you still have a lot of games that you want to play for Xbox 360, DO NOT get rid of your Xbox 360! That system will still be relevant for as long as 360 games are being made and likely a while after that. Especially considering popular multiplayer games like Halo 4 will likely remain popular for years, so hopefully your 360 doesn’t feel like getting the red ring of death anytime soon (crap, I hope mine didn’t just get any ideas…).

So far there is no official release date, but Xbox One is coming out “later this year.” In other words, they’ll have it ready for Christmas where they can make a crap load of money in a small amount of time.